Israel: Ritter Raises Impt Questions for LA Jews for Peace

[Scott Ritter's December 17, 2007 essay (below) on Israel raises many
im****tant questions (Platkin adds 'for LA Jews for Peace,' to whom he
is sending Ritter's essay). Platkin's intro and essay clearly raise
critical questions of interest to all of us. -Ed]

Scott Ritter's Essay: Food for Thought for LA Jews for Peace

by Dick Platkin 

Scott Ritter has written a powerful piece calling for a total reversal
of US policy toward Israel.  While useful in its own right, I think it
indicates that at the non-public level, there is a growing debate in
the US foreign policy establishment on how Israel fits in, or more
accurately does not fit in, to overall US policy in the Middle East.

In other words, does Israel help or hinder the efforts of the US to
maintain its dominant economic and military position in the oil-rich
Persian Gulf? Does Israel help of hinder the efforts of the US
government to maintain close relation****ps with the major pro-US Sunni
governments: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, and Egypt?  Does Israel help
or hinder US efforts to counter Islamic fundamentalism?  Does it help
or hinder the efforts of the US to establish and enormous network of
bases and fleets in and surrounding the Persian Gulf, from Southern
Europe and Turkey, to the Horn of Africa, to the "stans," to the Indian
Ocean?  Does Israel help or hinder the efforts of the US to engineer a
discreet Vietnam-type retreat from Iraq in order to later square off
against Iran?

Like Jimmy Carter and Walt and Mearsheimer, Ritter has sided with the
foreign policy realists on this question.  He calls for the US to sever
its relation****p with Israel until Israel comes clean on its nuclear
weapons and stops provoking war against Iran.  Unlike Carter and Walt
and Mearsheimer, though, Ritter does not even mention the Palestinians.

My guess is that as the Iraq War wages on, and as the military position
of the US weakens in the Persian Gulf, and the global economic position
of the US is pulled down by its colossal military blunder in Iraq, more
"anti-Israel" voices will emerge from Brookings, the Council on Foreign
Relations, the major International Relations centers at prestigious
universities, and other think tanks of the empire.

The question facing LA Jews for Peace is how to distill the worthy
points of the Ritters, without endorsing their larger goal of breathing
new life into the crumbling US position throughout the greater Middle
East.

                                   **

Antiwar.com - Dec 17, 2007
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/ritter.php?articleid=12064

redistributed by info clearing house
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18906.htm

US Must Reevaluate Its Relation****p With Israel

by Scott Ritter

I have for some time now publicly articulated my sympathy and sup****t
for the state of Israel, even while criticizing those cases that I
believed constituted poor judgment and bad policy. My stance was based
upon my past experiences with Israel, which began indirectly in
1990-1991 when I was involved in counter-SCUD activities during
Operation Desert ****eld/Desert Storm, and continued in a much more
direct fa****on as a weapons inspector with the United Nations Special
Commission (UNSCOM), charged with disarming Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction.

As a weapons inspector I made numerous visits to Israel for the purpose
of coordinating with the Israeli intelligence community on matters
pertaining to Iraqi WMD. I was greatly impressed not only with the
professionalism of the Israeli intelligence services, but also with the
Israeli people and society. During my time in Israel, I was witness to
numerous horrific events, including several terrorist bombings and the
assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The resilience of the
people of Israel in absorbing these blows yet continuing to live life
to its fullest was remarkable, and worthy of admiration.

As a firsthand witness to the remarkable vigor of the Israeli state and
its people, and as someone who considers himself to be their friend, it
saddens me to see just how poorly the current Israeli government
returns this friend****p, not to me personally, but to my country, the
United States of America. The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
has embarked on policies that are questionable at best when one
examines them from a purely Israeli standpoint; they are nothing less
than a betrayal of the United States when examined from a broader
perspective.

The insidious manner in which the current Israeli government has
manipulated the domestic political machinery of the United States to
produce sup****t for its policies constitutes nothing less than direct
interference in the governance of a sovereign state. The degree to
which the current Israeli government has succeeded in this regard can
be tracked not only by the words and actions of the administration of
President George W. Bush and the American Congress, but also by the
extent to which a pro-Israel lexicon has taken hold within the
mainstream media of the United States. Witness the pro-Israel bias
displayed when discussing the situation in southern Lebanon, the air
strike in Syria, or the Iranian situation, and the retarding of any
effort toward a responsible discussion of anything dealing with Israel
becomes apparent.

One would expect such efforts to shape the domestic public opinion of a
state deemed hostile, but when the target of these Israeli actions is
its ostensible best friend, one must begin to question whether or not
the friend****p is a one-way street. And if this is indeed the case,
then perhaps it is time for the United States to reconsider its
decades-old policy of strategic partner****p with Israel.

It must be understood that the government of Ehud Olmert is acting in a
post-9/11 environment, with considerable facilitators in the
administration of President Bush, including the vice president. These
two factors combine to create a cycle of enablement that allows a
purely Israeli point of view to dominate American policy. If the
Israeli point of view were built on logic, compassion, and the rule of
law, then this tilt would not constitute a problem. But the Israeli
point of view is increasingly constructed on a foundation of
intolerance and irresponsible unilateralism that divorces the country
from global norms. In this day and age of nuclear nonproliferation, the
undeclared nuclear arsenal of Israel stands as perhaps the most
egregious example of how an Israel-only standard destabilizes the
Middle East. It is the Israeli nuclear weapons program, including its
strategic delivery systems, that is the core of instability for this
very volatile region.

The statements by Israeli officials concerning the recent National
Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran and its nuclear program are perhaps
the best manifestation of this reality. Avi Dichter, Israel's public
security minister, has condemned the NIE as a flawed do***ent, and in
terms that link the American analysis to a cause-and-effect cycle that
could lead the Middle East down the path of regional war. Like many
Israelis, including the prime minister, Dichter disagrees with the
American NIE on Iran, in particular the finding that Iran ceased its
nuclear weapons program in 2003. The Israelis hold that this program is
still active, despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) has reached a conclusion similar to the NIE's based upon
its own exhaustive inspection activities inside Iran over the past five
years.

In threatening the world with war because America opted for once to
embrace fact instead of fiction, Israel, sadly, has become like a
cornered beast, la****ng out at any and all it perceives to threaten its
security interests. The current Israeli definition of what constitutes
its security interests is so broad as to preclude any difference of
opinion. Israel's shameless invocations of the Holocaust to defend its
actions not only shames the memory of those murdered over 60 years ago,
but ironically dilutes the impact of that memory by linking it with
current policies that are cruel and intolerant. The message of
Holocaust remembrance should be "never again," not just in terms of the
persecution of Jews, but in terms of man's inhumanity to man. The birth
of the Israeli state, as imperfect and controversial as it was, served
as a foundation for the pursuit of tolerance. However, Israel's current
policies, rooted in ethnic and religious hatred, are the antithesis of
tolerance.

Israel at present can have no friends, because Israel does not know how
to be a friend. Driven by xenophobic paranoia and historical
grievances, Israel is embarked on a path that can only lead to death
and destruction. This is a path the United States should not tread. I
have always taken the position that Israel is a friend of the United
States, and that friends should always stand up for one another, even
in difficult times. I have also noted that, to quote a phrase well
known in America, friends don't let friends drive drunk, and that for
some time now Israel has been drunk on arrogance and power. As a
friend, I have believed the best course of action for the United States
to take would be that which helped remove the keys from the ignition of
the policy vehicle Israel is steering toward the edge of the abyss. Now
it seems our old friend is holding a pistol to our head, demanding that
we stop interfering with the vehicle's operation and preventing us from
getting out of the car. This is not the action of a friend, and it can
no longer be tolerated.

It is time for what those who are familiar with dependency issues would
term an intervention. Like a child too long spoiled by an inattentive
parent, Israel has grown accustomed to American largess, to the point
that it is addicted to an American aid package that is largely
responsible for keeping the Israeli economy afloat. This aid must be
reconsidered in its entirety. The day of the free ride must come to an
end. The United States must redefine its national security priorities
in the Middle East and position Israel accordingly. At the very least,
American aid must be linked to Israeli behavior modification. The
standards America applies to other nations around the world when it
comes to receiving aid must likewise apply to Israel.

Let there be no doubt: Israel and its considerable lobby of sup****ters
here in America will scream bloody murder if their aid is trimmed in
any fa****on. But in the greater interest of what will best benefit the
security interests of the United States, and indeed the Middle East and
the entire world, the grip Israel has on American policymaking must
come to an end. It is up to the American people to make this change,
first and foremost by recognizing that a real problem exists in
American-Israeli relations, then by electing officials to Congress who
will deal responsibly with these problems based not on the
behind-the-scenes lobbying of Israel and its proxies, but rather the
legitimate interests of the United States.

If Israel decides it wants to be our friend, then it will change its
behavior accordingly. Absent this, America has no choice but to declare
its independence from a relation****p that has destroyed our credibility
around the world and drags us dangerously down the path toward another
irresponsible military misadventure in the Middle East. If, in the
future, Israel desires to reestablish a relation****p with the United
States built upon the principles of mutual trust and benefit, then so
be it. Such a relation****p is something I could embrace without
hesitation. But one thing is certain: no such friend****p can truly
exist under the conditions and terms that are in place today, and for
that reason the entirety of the American-Israeli relation****p must be
reexamined.

[Scott Ritter is a former UNSCOM weapons inspector in Iraq and the
author of Target Iran: The Truth Behind the White House's Plans for
Regime Change (Nation Books, 2006).]

Copyright 2007 Antiwar.com
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